Andrew Yang’s Corporate Speaking Fees Become Major Campaign Issue

So Andrew Yang’s got a bit of a problem and
no, I’m not talking about the a cult like mentality of his supporters. I’ll get to that in just a moment. But Andrew Yang’s problem are the speeches
that he gave to corporations, places like JP Morgan Chase, you know, one of the banks
that help burn down the US economy never once had to pay any kind of real penalty for the
shenanigans they pulled, screwing over American workers, screwing over American retirees and
Andrew Yang about a year or so ago thought, you know what, it’d be a good idea to go give
a speech to them and then take their blood money. Five speeches for roughly $10,000 now that’s
not good. Okay, that’s not good that Andrew Yang did
this after all. I mean, let’s not forget. Let’s fair is fair. We criticized the hell out of Hillary Clinton
for giving those corporate speeches ahead of the 2016 election, but she made hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Andrew Yang, just, you know, 10 or so. So obviously she got paid a lot more. So it’s not necessarily the same level, but
the principle of it is exactly the same. Andrew Yang saw the criticism Hillary Clinton
got but decided the money was too sweet to pass it up. So that’s a problem. He was seduced by the dollar sign. But here’s where things get a little bit tricky
and Andrew Yang may have run a foul of the law, uh, according to FEC, they’re looking
into these speeches right now because Andrew Yang announced that he was running for president
in early of 2017 and gave these speeches in 2018 so he gave these speeches technically
as a Democratic presidential candidate. So if these were viewed as campaign events,
he would be running a foul of FEC laws and this money he was paid would have to be considered
a campaign contribution. Then it would have exceeded the limits. And then you run into some very serious legal
issues. But Yang says he was not speaking to these
banks as a candidate. He was talking about his book, the war on
normal people. And if that is the case, then the FEC says,
okay, cool, that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that. Have a nice day. Um, except the problem is that one of these
powerpoints that uh ABC News got Ahold of that he gave in one of these speeches, it
actually had his presidential logo in it that would at that point qualify as a violation
of the FEC rules. Now here’s the thing. I, I think at the end of this, the FTC is
going to come out and say, listen, he was not doing this as a candidate. We do not think that he violated any rules. Andrew Yang, you are free to go. And to be honest, I kind of feel the same
way. I don’t think Andrew Yang broke the law here. I don’t think he intentionally tried to break
the law here either. What I do have a problem with is the fact
that these speeches occurred to begin with, right? He knows what these banks have done. he knows the, the harm they’ve inflicted on
the American public and continued to inflict today. But he still said, you know what? I want that money. I want to sell more books. I want to increase my popularity. So I’m willing to sell out my values to go
do that. That’s a problem. Now to his followers, I don’t mean every single
person who supports Andrew Yang is a cult member. Okay, let’s get that straight out of the way. Andrew Yang has said some things that I wholeheartedly
agree with. Andrew Yang has also said quite a few things
that I don’t understand what the hell he just said. Case in point this past weekend on Twitter,
he tweeted something out to the effect of, I’m trying to paraphrase it, trying to remember
it about the fact that there’s a lot of, uh, candidates running right now talking about
all the bad things corporations have done. But you know, and I guess to a degree that’s
part of it, but we really need to address, you know, being able to act on our values. Does that make sense to anyone? You can go to my Twitter feed and actually
ah see where I retweeted that and actually questioned like, please somebody, explain
what he’s talking about here. And then I want you to go to the replies on
that tweet. Go to the replies on any tweet Andrew Yang
sends out on Twitter and then you’ll start seeing the crazies, right? The people who look at this guy as some kind
of cult leader, the same kind of behavior that we criticized Donald Trump supporters
for and that’s not okay. Now let’s be honest, Andrew Yang is not the
only person, but they call it like following. You can find those on the Bernie side. You can find them on the Warren. You can sure as hell find them on the Harrison
Biden side. You can find them on the Hillary side, the
people with the Hashtag still with her in their Twitter handles or Twitter bio’s let
it go folks, I don’t think any candidates should have a cult like following. I don’t think any human being should look
at a political candidate as if they are some kind of God. Because as this story of Andrew Yang points
out, he’s got some flaws. He’s got some pretty intense flaws that make
him a bad candidate. Not a bad human being, but a bad candidate
and certainly not the candidate that we need right now. Focus on the issues. I know his ubi has attracted a lot of people, but those aren’t necessarily enough, and I
don’t know that he is explained it well enough to these people for them to understand what
it would truly cost them to get this ubi because it could end up costing them their social
security. It could end up costing them the other safety
nets that we have. The food stamps, you know, the, the, the snap
program, best chip program. It’s not worth the cost on that. And I’m not talking about much money we have
to pay. I’m talking about the, the opportunity cost
here, that other side of economics people forget to think about a lot. And I think that’s what Andrew Yang forgot
here too. He was a good businessman. Just turning out more and more. The more we learned about him, the more we
watched him speak that he’s really not a very good candidate.

Andrew yang is not a crazy socalist hes a sensible guy that knows issue of the future hes not against financial industry. You sir are a fool and people being passionate is not a cult. Banks did harm but it was individuals in the banks not the banks the goverment sets the rules and trump has deregulated like hell trump is the shady bank loving president.

in case yang-bangers can't tell, the problem is being paid for speech while running for the democratic ticket. that's suicide, full stop. he also has billionaire funding so that's risque on its own. he's a good dude with a sharp entrepreneurial mind, but he's on another wavelength.

Well, that's the final blow to Andrew Yang in my book. The instant that they take that corporate money money money is the instant you know that they can't be trusted. I might like some of his ideas, but he's earned my suspicion.

They fall apart trying to explain the loss of jobs due to automation vs the $1k perpetual poverty payment you receive while corporations continue to rake in billions of profits with zero accountability.

This is such an obvious trap and I really hope no normal adults fall for it.

Woah! When did I get redirected to a channel of a guy throwing right wing talking points and smearing progressives. Wait this is ROF, dafuq you think you are doing? We have Bedien, Harris, and Warren out there all corporate shills polling better than or closer to any progressive and this is where you go? Shame on you.

Yang got 2k for each speech about his book, nothing to do with his candidacy none of it when towards his campaign.

Bernie is my 2nd choice but you guys are making me question him if he is drawing these kinds of supporters. We need to be supporting each other we need to be working together for what we really want, Change. Be who ever it is on the progressive side.

I'm an Andrew Yang supporter and honestly I watch your show too. I think you have the wrong impression of Andrew granted I wasn't aware of that speaking arrangement w/ JP Morgan but does this really disqualifies him as a candidate NO! it does not ,he made a mistake do I want a president to be an angel who never ever made mistake? Plus what your missing is:Did he do it again? How many times he did it one time? Does that honestly disqualify him? James Gunn made a stupid remark 10 years ago on twitter should he be fired as a director and never be seen again? As far as UBI he did on several occasion addressed the situation it will not affect Social Security or food stamps he says if you are getting more on those programs you can opt out! I've a request sir, please don't be these Yang critics (like Sam Seder and Michael Brooks) who just look for any small detail and blow it up to ridiculous proportions I'm not expecting you to be a Yang supporter just fair and objective I love your show and I don't want to this place where all I could say is "OOH here he is being unfair treatment to Yang" "this is only one sided, no substance"

The shit that (t)rump has said and done before during and after his campaign, and now during his fake ass presidency, makes me numb to anything these candidates can do. Considering the fact that trump has had no repercussions in the form of punishment or disciplinary consequence to his unlawful actions, makes this story and others regarding candidates, is a joke.

The reason we are supporting Yang is because he has the solutions to our problems. We are passionate on our believes. You are just as passionate with Bernie. Is that a cult? Before you criticize Yang, please spent the time to understand then first. Yang’s policies are so much better than Sanders (especially on $15 min wage or FJG)

How about educate yourself on his policies. They are on his website. This is a pointless video. Calling it a Cult, is not only insulting, it is ridiculous. Bernie bros are worse. If you can fully explain why you don't like his policies, talk about them. Don't insult our intelligence. Your opinion would count more to me, as a subscriber for a few years, if you actually invite him to your show and discuss your concerns. Saying, it's not good, without real arguments, is mute

Let's apply a bit of critical thinking here. Okay, if you look at the numbers, no candidate has a higher percentage of small donors than Yang. If you look at outside money, only two candidates have accepted $0 from outside money and Yang is one of them. The other is Williamson. If you look at policy, Yang is talking about a financial transaction tax and of course his VAT, and if you're a rich banker, your company is either going to be paying the bulk of the VAT or you are. Yang's Freedom Dividend would reduce inequality in the US by 15%, and it would empower people with the ability to refuse the domination of others thanks to removing poverty as a stick. Hell, one of Yang's policies is even Postal Banking, which bankers do not want. Another policy is what Yang calls the Public Protection Against Market Abuse Act, which calls for mandatory minimum jail sentences based either on the size of the fine levied against financial institutions, or the amount of money involved in the fraudulent or unethical transactions. The sentences will be served by the CEO and largest individual domestic shareholder. Do you think banking lobbyists are hoping for that one? Look, if you guys prefer Bernie, great, but don't go around lying about Yang. It just makes you look bad.

A cult like following eh? Blame the candidate NOT the empty headed bubbleheads that need to be led like sheep? You can't be a "cult following" unless you choose to be led be it Trump or Yang or anyone else!

Screw the so-called "issues" that have been around for years and never get solved and are only brought up during elections, they're elected and what happens? The same ones crop up again and again because the do nothing candidate will say anything to get elected!

Donald Trump is the fucking issue! What he's doing to the country. These candidates have to say how they're going to correct all Trump has trashed! The gun issue has been unsolved since Columbine by both sides. It's not going anywhere! The opioid issue has been around for years! It's not going anywhere! Oh yeah that health care issue. Well call me fricking old fashioned but when I was coming up we found our own health insurance without government influence! I don't want government control people demand. In my time the insurance company didn't work out we found a new one!

I'm sick of hearing these bread and butter issues that have been around for YEARS!

Did anyone know there was an opioid crisis until a politician yapped about it doing nothing about it? How many shootings have we gone through since Columbine and nothing is done? Think something will be done? NO! Maybe idiotic parents should start training their kids to behave like civilized human beings where violence isn't used as a problem solver instead of having their phones and technology stuck up their asses so far that they don't have time for anything else!

Yeah but he isnt a politician. He is a tech executive who is supposed to do that anyway. The reason why it’s a problem for politicians to do that is it’s one way of getting bribed by corporate america because they cant legally hand out cash to politicians without any reason. All the successful tech executives give lectures and speeches at corporate events so the employees can gain valuable industry knowledge.

Yang’s goals are probably a couple of generations ahead of us. AI and automation will take over similarly like Elon Musk’s predictions. Are we there yet? No, but will we be there, yes! So, right theory but wrong time. In ten years, definitely it is necessary!

Farron, I don't believe for a minute that Yang cared at all about $10K – for the money. That's just not enough to matter to him. I suspect the ego high from talking about his book was a bigger driver. He probably wanted to convince them he was right and they wanted to hear what he had to say. And who is going to do that talk for less? It's an already low market rate for him. Just my opinion as someone who has a lot of friends who get paid to talk….

His campaign issues can't possibly be worse than the pig in the oval office. Has the 2016 campaign of the moron even been balanced and released to the public? He's a con man raping the U.S. daily and Barr is making it happen legally.

Andrew is a normal guy who needs to support his family. they find whatever way to stop him because he is the only one which would be able to rebalance this society by redistributing the wealth between the rich and poor.

This guy is misleading everyone for the sake of supporting Bernie, very sad. Yang is not removing the social safety net or welfare. All contribution based social security stacks on the Freedom Dividend (SSDI, OASDI, Unemployment, VA Disability, Medicaid, Housing Assistance). Please see this detailed article for more:

Ok I thought you were dissent but you are the same shit like everyone else. Obviously now you see how much popularity Yang is gaining and you decided to throw a very low blow with over exaggeration for the speeches he gave before he even announce for president. That’s so cheap and if that’s all you have for him then you are a pathetic human being that cares to promote what you think is right and not what actually is right.

ITs a free country he can talk to who ever he wants. and if he's using the same power point for speeches and the campaign, then theres nothing really there.His book and his campaign are one in the same, almost.

Yang trying to get more people on board with his idea. Giving a speech to the bankers and getting them to see the problems. I like it.

Bringing up your opinion on Yang at the end was VERY misleading. Yang isnt taking away your food stamps you twit. You can keep them if you want you just dont get the UBI. I used to like watching this channel. Now I realize you are just and biased and fake as Fox news.

Wall Street doesn't like Andrew Yang? He's a noob politician, so they dangle the dollar in front of him, he bites and now they have dirt on him, so they leak it …Yeah, really on top of my head, but I wouldn't put it beyond the mob on Wall Street.

Why you so angry? Nobody wants Warren. Bernie is 75? Yang is not a politician. What happed to forgiving candidates for their slight mis steps and expecting them to do better? Give this guy a chance. It's still early. He made 10k omg. Lock him up. Lock him up.

Your argument against Yang is weak. UBI does not cancel out social security. It cuts out all the excessive bureaucracy and its opt in so if you enjoy you govmnt benefits, you keep them. I love an underdog and the more the media tries to erase him, I know he's on to something.

Agree with you on the fact that no one should be a cultist, but I do need to politely criticize a few things.1. You're entire reasoning of why he's a bad candidate is based off of faulty information: Freedom dividend stacks with social security. That change was made months ago.2. I'd prefer if you stop making inaccurate blanket comments first and then backtrack second. Just say the real thing first and you won't be so wrong Examples:a. "Yang gang is a group that has a cult-like mentality!!!!" ——- "But it's not everybody, just some people on Twitter."—— "but it's still bad that Yang has them." ———— "I mean everybody does have them but no one should have cult-like followers." See how that progression starts really strong, but in reality could be boiled down to "Hey everybody, let's be reasonable, your candidate doesn't poop roses, he's not perfect. He deserves some criticism and let's be adults about how we interact with each other." b. "He gave speeches to banks!!!!! It might have been a campaign finance PROBLEM!!! —— Well actually he was promoting his book, which generally speaking is not allied with large banking institutions and this really boils down to the fact that he may have used a presidential logo on his powerpoint slides.

I know you're in the media, but do you really need to make everything into a blood and gore fest that really doesn't need to be? It's fine if you want to criticize his taking money to speak for banks, I think he said that he took it because it gave him an opportunity to share his ideas, which makes sense to me, but I can see where you are coming from.

Call us a cult or whatever you like, its a fucking electoral campaign. Its about making noise and getting together so if you want to stay alone in your corner go ahead and watch us win with a bitter taste in your mouth 😉

Yang literally wants to make banking a public service through the UPS. Bank owners hate him since he threatens their whole livelihood. And he was talking about automation which he is an expert on and has been trying to bring awareness to for many years. He just forgot to remove his logo. The speaking fee was very low as well. It was just part of his job back then